Why did the killing of the endangered
Zimbabwean lion Cecil by a professional hunting guide, Theo
Bronkhorst, and an American dentist and trophy hunter, Walter Palmer,
caused such an international outcry? The loss of this precious lion's
life is tragic, yet, over 90% of his Western supporters are carnivores who are
willing participants in the exploitation and killing of billions of
land and marine creatures served daily to satisfy their craving for
flesh, dairy and eggs.

Is there such a huge difference between
one endangered animal and billions of food animals? Consider
that raising food animals is causing the endangered status of most
animals in the first place. Animal agriculture is a leading cause of
biodiversity loss, displacement, deforestation, land degradation,
desertification, and pollution. Moreover, livestock production is a
leading source of potent greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous
oxide.

Consumption of animal products is
popular and is expected to increase by 50% from 2013 to 2025,
facilitated in part by national subsidies and neoliberal trade
agreements. Similar to the growing demand for food animals, trophy hunting or
legal gaming is increasing in popularity and importance to many
national
economies in Africa. Trade by poaching or the illegal killing of
untamed animals, is booming, as is the trade in exotic animals.

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In the last four decades, deer and elk
breeding grew to a billion dollar industry, and is currently one the
fastest growing business in rural America, but not without its risks.
For example, one investigation
revealed that breeding deer with big antlers to be shot in fenced
hunting preserves contributes to the spread of diseases to livestock
and wildlife. The threat of disease has not slowed the popularity of
canned hunting, however. Similarly, the recent loss of 8 million
piglets to Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus, and the culling of 50
million birds due to bird flu, has not slowed pig and egg
consumption.

The outpouring of grief over Cecil is
an anomaly that is hard to explain. The expansion of the neoliberal
economy, livestock production, and trophy hunting, with their
attendant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, goes largely
unchallenged, especially by mainstream media. The media's coverage of Cecil was instigated by protests from below, at the grassroots, and it stands in stark contrast to their promotion of economic expansion and exploitation of natural resources.

For example, the Washington
Post's interview with Charles Koch, and the New York Times's
fawning front-page
profile of the Koch brothers never mentions the power elite's
opposition to clean energy, or how Koch industries causes pollution
and damages ecosystems. The liberal media serves as a PR agency for
neoliberalism capitalism, so it is no surprise that they allow the
power elite to cynically use the poor to justify conservative
opposition to the White House's Clean Power Plan.

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The power elite's use of media as a
trophy wall for everything from justifiable wars to austerity is
nothing new, however, and there are vital lessons to be learned.
First, the lethal mix of toxic masculinity and neoliberal capitalism
is here to stay. Second, this violent mix is not only persistent, but
prevalent, and will intensify during periods of expansion and de-growth.
Third, the same patriarchal neoliberalism that brought us to massive
ecosystem collapse so rapidly, will most likely lead to near-term
human extinction faster than any short-term environmental feedbacks.

Ironically, the focus on power elites
and trophy hunters conveniently absolves personal responsibility and
everyday complicity in animal exploitation. Perhaps, the anomaly of
outrage against the killing of Cecil represents a subtle shift in
human relations towards animals. More than a single endangered
animal, Cecil has become a symbol, a subliminal way for humans
largely complicit in the current ecological crisis, to express a
hidden awareness and subconscious outrage against the increasing
endangerment to our own lives and that of the entire planet.

"Rob explores the difference between a natural, organic, bottom-up connection consciousness and our corporately imposed top-down hierarchical collective consciousness. What Rob is speaking about is the difference between an artificial and ultimately stagnate way of organizing the world and a natural, organic growth, which starts with a seed, sends downs roots and sends up shoots which blossom. By returning to a Nature-based theory of connection, the Bottom-Up revolution brings us back into alignment with Earths laws, returning humanity to its place in creation. Like a good gardener, Rob works into the soil of his thesis different voices that exemplify how this Bottom-Up revolution is expanding in politics, business, religion, personal self-awareness and story. And he places technology where it belongsas a tool to further our connection consciousness, not an end in itself. The bottom-up revolution is about democracy finally living up to its original ideals, where we the people decide what we need from our society."

Cathy Pagano, author of Wisdoms Daughters: How Women Can Change the World

Author Mark Taliano combines years of research with on-the-ground observations to present an informed and well-documented analysis that refutes the mainstream media narrative.